It Started With A Movie
by dphillips76
Summary: Set in Season 3 - After episode 3x19 "Law & Murder" When Castle tricks Beckett into taking him to see "Forbidden Planet", it sets off a chain of events.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

They walk out of the theatre arm in arm, and Beckett turns them down the sidewalk instead of across the street to her car.

"It's nice out, you mind getting a little air?" She asks.

"Not at all. A light stroll is just what the doctor ordered to walk off some of those calories from all that popcorn I ate." Castle replies, rubbing his stomach. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to die in the very near future, so you should probably sayyour last goodbyes now."

"Quit your whining Castle. I could eat more popcorn than that when I was eight." She gives him a little push and laughs out loud when he falls off the curb and stumbles a few steps before catching himself on a parked cab.

He cringes and waits for the tirade to start, but is happy to notice that the 'off duty' sign is lit, and the cabbie is absent for the moment. About the same time he realizes that he's not going to get berated by a crazy cab driver, he notices Beckett standing on the sidewalk looking at him with one side of her mouth turned up in a half smile at him.

"You want to share your humor with the class Detective?" He asks as he crosses his arms and tries to put on his best stern look.

"Just you." Beckett replies and starts walking down the sidewalk again.

"Hey! What does that mean?" He calls out, and then rushes to catch up with her again.

"You're like a giant five year old Castle!" She tells him, but there's a smile on her face, so it's obvious she may not think his antics are all bad.

When he catches up to her, Castle starts to continue the teasing, but he sees that Beckett has a slightly serious on her face, so he just puts his hands in his pockets and walks quietly beside her. After a couple of blocks, Beckett looks over at him, and seems surprised to see him walking beside her.

"Penny for your thoughts Detective?" He asks.

She started to give him the standard brush off, but after seeing the look on his face, she shuts her mouth without giving him the usual line. They walked another half of a block in silence before she spoke. "Thanks for coming with me tonight Rick."

Castle stopped mid-step and just stared at Beckett with his mouth open. She had just called him by his first name, which she very rarely did, at least not in that soft tone. Most of the other times she'd called him Rick, it had been because he'd not stayed in the car, or because she'd caught him daydreaming instead of paying attention at a crucial moment. He figured it was because by addressing him by his last name, she was grouping him in with the rest of the cops, and that doing that kept it less personal for her. He knew she was fiercely protective of her thoughts and feelings, and though he felt something much more than work-related comradery towards her, he wasn't sure how she felt about him.

So instead of making a big deal out of it, because he didn't want to scare her away, he simply said, "You're welcome. I had a great time."

"Me too." Beckett told him with a smile on her face, and he could see the relief in her eyes when she realized that he wasn't going to comment on her using his first name.

"Hey, look where we are." He said, pointing across the street.

Kate followed the direction Rick was pointing and saw the awning for The Old Haunt. The dark green fabric stood out in the twilight, and she turned back to him, raising one eyebrow. "So?"

"So? What do you mean, so? This is a sign detective." Rick said, and held out his hand as he stepped off the curb. "Will you please allow me to buy you a drink?"

Again, Kate started to say no, but she couldn't seem to resist the pleading look in Castle's eyes and his outstretched hand. Instead of replying, she just nodded and took his hand, allowing him to pull her across the street and in to the bar that he'd bought after one of their recent cases.

As they stepped through the door, Castle still held onto her hand as he greeted the bartender. "Hey there Justin. How's it going tonight?"

"Hi, Mr. Castle! All's well as usual."

"Justin, please. I've told you a hundred times to call me Rick."

The younger bartender beamed at Castle. "I know, sir. I just can't bring myself to do it though."

Castle smiled back at him, and led Beckett to a booth in the corner, away from the other people in the bar. He took pride in the fact that finding a spot at this time of night would normally be a bit dicey, but it was a weeknight, and the bar wasn't as full as it would have been closer to the weekend. A pretty brunette waitress met them at the table a few seconds after they'd sat down.

"What can I get you two to drink tonight?"

"I'll have my usual Marissa." Castle told her, and turned to Beckett.

"I'll have a vodka cherry sour please." Kate said, and tried to hide her curiosity about Castle's 'usual' drink as she looked around the bar.

She could see that the place was much the same as she remembered it, but she could see Castle's influence in the new blinds at the windows and the lights that weren't quite as dim as before. She was glad to see that the small changes hadn't done anything to take away from the character of the bar though. She turned back to face Castle after her short perusal of her surroundings and found him watching her with a small smirk on his face.

"What?" She asked, a little more defensively than she intended to. He'd caught her off guard as usual.

"Oh nothing Detective." He replied, and his smirk turned into a shy smile. "I take it you approve of the little bit of redecorating I've done?"

Beckett bit her bottom lip, embarrassed that he'd known what she was doing. "Yes, I do."

"Good. I did want to make a few changes, but I didn't want the place to be unrecognizable to everyone that had been coming here on a regular basis."

"You did a good job Castle. The changes are there, but they're subtle enough that only those regulars will probably notice them."

Their exchange had been fairly short, but the waitress was already back with their drinks. "Your vodka cherry sour," She sat Beckett's drink in front of her. "And yourGlenfiddich, neat, Mr. Castle."

"Thank you Marissa." Rick told her, and looked back to Beckett to see that her eyebrow was up again. "Yes, Detective?"

Kate bit her bottom lip. Again. Why was he getting to her so much tonight? She felt something had shifted between them, but she wasn't sure what it was. "Nuh… Nothing." She stuttered a little.

It was Castle's turn to be embarrassed now. He had sensed that he had her off her guard a little tonight, but wasn't completely sure until just now. There was something different about her this evening, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Instead of pushing the situation into an awkward one, he steered them away from the uncomfortable with a safe conversation topic.

"That was one heck of a case, wasn't it? I really wasn't expecting it to end that way."

"Castle, I hardly ever expect them to end the way that they do." Beckett admitted, shaking her head. "I've been a cop for quite a while now, but almost every case surprises me when I go back and think about them. Some of the things that people do to each other…."

Proud of himself for leading Beckett back to something he knew she would be comfortable talking about, he let her take the reins, and just enjoyed the light shop talk with her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **Characters belong to ABC/Andrew Marlowe. Ideas belong to me.

**A/N: **Thanks to the few who reviewed, and to everyone who read. I'm blown away by the number of views and the follows. Going to go ahead and post this second chapter. Please be kind and leave a few words. Constructive criticism is always welcome too :)

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Two weeks later…

Castle grabs his coat from the back of the chair. "So, what's showing at The Angelica tonight?"

Beckett looks up from her desk, and realizes it's Wednesday night again. Their trip to the theater for a sci-fi classic, a walk, and then a couple of the drinks at The Old Haunt has become a weekly habit. She feels a small twinge in the back of her mind about her boyfriend Josh, but pushes it away. It's not like she's dating Castle. They've simply found some common ground in their fondness for the old sci-fi movies. And then she has a thought that it's one more thing they have in common. After working with him for almost three years, he's become a fixture in her daily life, and she wonders briefly what life would be like if they'd never had that case where the murderer was using scenes from Castle's books to commit his crimes.

"Beckett?" Castle questions, because she looked like she was about to say something, but then she drifted off in thought.

"Sorry." She says with a little smile. "It's been a long day, and I guess my mind was wandering a little."

"_That's an understatement." _Rick thinks to himself, but doesn't say it to her.

"Tonight they're showing Escape From New York." She says, putting away the last of her paperwork and getting up from her desk. "You in?"

"You know I am." He replies. Once again, he follows her out of the bull pen and into the elevator.

After the movie, they hit the Old Haunt as usual, and had just gotten seated at their standard table after giving the waitress the nod for their drink order, when Beckett saw Castle looking over her shoulder, his eyes wide.

"What are you looking at?" She asks, wondering what's causing the panicked look on his face.

Castle looked at Beckett and blinked when she spoke to him, but his attention went right back to the man that had just come storming in the front door of the bar. He watched her turn and look over her shoulder, and could almost see her neck stiffen as she noticed what he'd been looking at.

Her boyfriend Josh, the motorcycle riding doctor, was scanning the tables one by one with a very unhappy look on his face. His eyes finally settled on the secluded one that Beckett and Castle were seated at, and his eyes narrowed immediately at the visibly intimate setting. He took a step towards their table, but his resolve seem to falter, and Castle could tell he was weighing the pros and cons of making a scene in what was clearly a cop hangout.

"I'm going to go wait for our drinks at the bar." Castle told Beckett, and quietly got up to make himself scarce for a few minutes to give her some privacy.

As soon as he left the table, he saw Josh stride angrily over to where he'd left Beckett sitting by herself, and even felt the back draft of air as the other man blew past him without so much as a grunt to acknowledge his presence.

At the obvious brush off, Castle felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He could understand why Josh might be a little ticked at finding his girlfriend in a bar, late in the evening, at a quiet table in the corner, with another man. But, it wasn't like Josh didn't know him, and didn't know that he and Beckett were partners as well as friends. He found himself wondering if Beckett had shared any details about their weekly outings with Josh. His next thought took his emotions back up another notch, because he suddenly felt very protective of Beckett, so much so that he wanted to walk right back over to the table and stand at her side.

But, instead of causing trouble, he went to the bar like he'd told her would, and sulked on a bar stool. Their waitress looked up and saw him sitting there, and he motioned her over with their drinks before she could head to the table where Beckett and Josh were talking.

"Everything okay Mr. Castle?"

"I'm sure it's fine Marissa. I'll hold our drinks here for a moment if you don't mind."

"Whatever you want sir." Marissa replied, and left him sitting at the bar with the two drinks in front of him.

"Justin, can you please pour me a shot of tequila?" Castle asked the bartender when he looked his way. He was glad that the boy didn't ask any questions, just bringing him a shot of Patron, along with a salt shaker and a lime wedge.

Castle made quick work of the shot, grimacing as he felt the warmth of it sliding down his throat, though it was partly the jealousy eating at him instead of just the tequila. Since the shot did nothing to quiet the green eyed monster thrashing around in his head, he motioned to Justin for another one. The bartender complied again without a word, but gave him a quizzical look when he brought the second shot. Castle just looked down in denial of the silent question, and knocked the second shot back just as quickly as the first.

He was about to have Justin bring him one more, when the volume of the conversation back at the table suddenly got cranked up a few notches.

"No, what's plain to me is that you are making a big deal out of nothing!" Beckett said to Josh, who was now standing beside the table glaring down at her.

"I'm not the only one that thinks this is a big deal, Kate, and if you can't see that, then you need to open your damn eyes!" Josh shouted back at her and stomped away through the bar, stiff-arming the door on his way out.

Castle can't stop himself from staring after Josh and his dramatic exit. When he pulled his eyes away from the front door, and looked back at Beckett, she lifted one shoulder in a shrug, and motioned him over. He pushed his anger towards the doctor down to be dealt with later, and picked up their drinks. His bravado had been soothed somewhat by the tequila, and he carried them to the table with a bit of wariness in his steps.

"Should I ask what happened?" He inquired with a little inward cringe, readying himself for what he thought might not be a pleasant response.

"He doesn't seem to be a fan of our recurring movie nights." Beckett replied without the anger Castle expected, but her tone clearly indicated she didn't want to talk about it.

He wanted to draw the details out of her, gently of course, but so that she would get it off her chest. When he opened his mouth to badger her a little, she looked down at her drink, pushing the sword with the cherry stuck to the end around in the ice.

"So how's the third Nikki Heat novel coming?" She asked, promptly changing the subject.

He could tell by the look in her eyes that pestering her would get him nowhere this time. "It's going pretty good so far. I'm about a third of the way into it, and the action is still coming out pretty easily." Castle answered, deciding not to push her into a conversation she clearly didn't want to have. "But, it's probably because I have such an endless source of inspiration." He smiled at her, wanting to get past the awkward feeling left over from her argument with Josh.

"You're so full of it Castle." She tells him, because she knew what he was trying to do. She didn't want to think about her argument with Josh, and she didn't want it to mess up their evening. "But thanks anyways."

"Always." Castle told her.

That one word had come to mean so much to the two of them. He'd used it several times now, and hoped that she understands what he means when he says it. Each time he's said it, he'd tried to pour all of his feelings about her into that one word, hoping that one day she'll realize that he doesn't just mean that he'll always be there for her as a partner. He wishes she would realize that he wants to be there for her not just as a friend, but more than that; as someone who loves her, and that she could lean on him when it got to be too much for her to handle alone.

But if she has any ideas about his feelings towards her, she doesn't let it show now, any more than she's ever done. So, as usual, he doesn't push and leaves it alone, not wanting to mess up the trust he's managed to build with her over the last couple of years.

They spend a little more time on mindless chit-chat, and finish their drinks. But the fight between Beckett and Josh had definitely put a damper on their usually light spirits and their hearts aren't in it anymore. Castle knows that Beckett won't want to be the one to give in, so he takes the fall for her.

"Hey, I had a couple of shots while I was waiting at the bar, and they're making me sleepy. Let's call it a night for now?" He says.

"Yah. Ok." She gets her coat, and follows him out of the bar.

The next week, on what would have been movie night, Castle is still feeling the after effects from the incident during their last outing. There's been an awkwardness between them the past week, though he hasn't said anything directly to her about it because he just wants it to go away. Beckett isn't at her desk, so with resignation to a Wednesday night at home, he grabs his coat from his chair beside her desk and is getting ready to head out just as she comes striding out of the break room with a fresh mug of coffee.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asks him with one eyebrow up.

"I was… uh… getting ready to head home… see what Mother and Alexis are up to." Castle replied, feeling a little like he'd been caught sneaking out of the house after curfew.

"It's movie night, isn't it? Clash of the Titans is playing this week. Can't miss that one." She says, holding his gaze the whole time. When he doesn't reply, she grabs her coat and heads for the elevator. About ten steps away, she turns back and finds him still standing by her desk. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

"Er, yah... Sorry." He sputters, and hurries after her.

Once they're in the elevator, he comes out of shock long enough to turn and look at Beckett. She's standing back against the wall, right in the center of the car, just like she always does. She has one knee bent and her foot propped on the wall like falling fifteen stories suspended by a few steel cables is the most natural thing in the world.

Castle cuts his eyes sideways at Beckett again, taking a step away from her, and hoping it looks like he was simply switching his weight from one foot to another. Deciding he might as well just go ahead and say it, he cleared his throat.

"I hate to bring this up, but did Josh have a change of heart?"

Beckett picked her head up and looked at him for a moment. Then she looked back down at her phone. "We had a talk. He realizes that he was overreacting, and it's not a big deal anymore."

After the elevator, Castle doesn't bring up Josh again, and the evening goes smoothly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **Characters are property of ABC and Andrew Marlowe. Ideas are mine.

**A/N:** I'm still blown away by the number of people following this story. It makes me want to stretch this out, even though the story is complete, and has been, for a long time. I've edited, tweaked, and added more all I can, I think. This is Chapter 3, and it's the end of this story. While I could probably write it differently so that it stretched out a little more, that wouldn't be doing justice to the story. Mostly because I have the attention span of a goldfish, and I wouldn't want to promise to continue and then not deliver.

Please take the time to leave a short review/comment. I can't explain how much even one sentence warms my heart.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

_Three days later…_

Castle is in his office, working into the wee hours of the morning on the new Nikki Heat novel, when he hears a soft knock at the door. He looks at the clock and sees the neon numbers showing 2:13am. Since he was in writing mode, he thinks he might have imagined the knock, but he slowly sits his laptop on the desk and gets out of the chair. He tiptoes towards the door even though he's the one inside the apartment. When whoever it is knocks a second time, he grabs the first thing in reach, which happens to be a meat tenderizer that's sitting on the kitchen counter for some reason, and quickly closes the remaining distance to the door.

He makes sure the security chain is in place and very slowly eases the door open just enough to see who's on the other side. He drops the meat tenderizer to his side when he sees Kate in the hallway, her eyes red and puffy, tears streaming down her face. She looks almost as surprised to see him actually opening the door as he is to see her standing at his door crying.

"Beckett?" He questions, his voice barely above a whisper. He's mindful of Alexis sleeping upstairs and desperately doesn't want her coming down to investigate right now.

"Can I come in?" Kate simply asks.

"Yah… Hi, Um… Oh, jeez…Of course… I'm sorry I'm standing here like an idiot." He stutters, sliding the security chain off, and opening the door wide enough for her to come in.

She walks past him into the apartment and stands with her head down just waiting. Castle closes the door and stares at it for a few seconds, not sure what to think. Kate Beckett, the strong willed, chase down the bad guys in four inch heels, gun toting, tough as nails New York detective, is standing in his apartment in a cocktail dress with her hair done up and her heels in her right hand, quietly sobbing with her left hand up to her face to shield her tears from him.

"Forgive me for being uncharacteristically speechless, but I don't really know what to say." He says as he spins to face her, and steps forward, putting his hand on her left elbow.

She doesn't answer him, just reaches down to slip her hand in his. Not saying anything else for the moment, he turns and leads her to the couch in the living room. Still silent, she sinks down to the cushions as he takes her shoes from her other hand and sits them on the floor. As she draws her knees up to pull her stocking clad feet under her, he decides to give her a minute, and goes into the kitchen to get her a glass of ice water for lack of knowing what else to do.

When he comes back into the living room with the water, she looks up at him and his heart breaks when he really sees her face. Her mascara is running under her eyes, her lipstick is smeared, and her hair is coming down from the up-do it looks like she spent a good hour on. After kicking himself mentally for thinking how beautiful she is even when she's obviously terribly upset about something and such an emotional mess, he sits down slowly beside her on the couch.

"What is it Kate?" He asks softly, calling her by her first name for a change, unconsciously reaching out to put his hand on one bended knee. Somewhere in the back of his shell shocked mind, he registers that this is the third time in about as many minutes that they've touched in some way, and that she hasn't drawn away from him at all. If anything, she seems to tense up and then relax at the contact.

"It's… I…" She starts, and then dissolves into silent sobs again, her slim body shaking with her efforts to hold her emotions in.

He can't take it anymore and scoots over until his back hits the other arm of the couch, holding out his arms. "Come here."

She doesn't say anything, doesn't even look at him, she just crawls across the small distance he put between them and curls up against his chest. She buries her face in his neck and lets the real flood of tears come, accepting the comfort he offered her without argument.

She cries as he holds her, and doesn't think about anything but his arms around her. For the time being, she's just Kate and he's just Rick, and she lets her guard down, taking in the softness of the cotton shirt he's wearing and the roughness of the stubble on his face.

Listening to his even breathing and feeling the strength in his hold on her, she cries, letting go of her pain and insecurity on his couch. He's been her friend for years now, and she's let him inside her head in ways that no one else has been in a very long time. It takes a while, but the tears finally stop. And when they do, she just lays in his arms, not wanting to speak and break the spell. She comes back to herself slowly, and lets her mind wander. It's then that she realizes that she doesn't really know how she wound up here, at Castle's loft. She thinks about that for a minute, and remembers that her intention when she left Josh's apartment was to go home and crawl in bed, and maybe not get out of it for a few days. The next thing she knew, she had gotten off the elevator and was knocking on his door.

Rick feels it when the tears stop, but is amazed that Kate hasn't moved at all. He knows she isn't asleep, because he can feel her breath against his neck and it's not even enough for her to have dozed off. But she's still in his arms, and he isn't going to be the first one to move and ruin the moment. He's dreamed so many times of holding her, though he thinks it's a bit ironic because she definitely wasn't crying in his dreams. As the images run back through his mind, he smiles to himself and cringes a little bit because he can feel the tingles beginning in his arms.

To keep the blood moving, Rick loosens his hold on her a little and rubs her upper arms with his hands, hoping that she doesn't take it wrong, or think that he wants her to move. When she doesn't seem to mind, he lets out a breath and forces himself to relax a little more, continuing to try and soothe her without words.

Then she starts to shift a little in his arms, and he tightens his hold on her again, not wanting to let her go. He feels her muscles bunch up, and prepares himself for the storm when she realizes where she is and the position that they're in. Because from the look he'd seen on her face when he opened the door, he doesn't really think that she consciously meant to come here.

Kate pulls back away from his chest, and sits up a little. She opens her mouth to say something, but just closes it again. She notices a box of Kleenex sitting on the table behind him, and reaches back to grab them just to kill a few more seconds before she has to speak. She knows that Castle must be dying with curiosity about why she showed up at his door in the middle of the night in the state that she's in.

Concentrating on wiping her face off, she can't believe that he hasn't started questioning her. But then as she thinks back over the past few weeks, and the time they've spent together, not to mention the time he's put in with her at the station, she realizes that his attitude has changed a great deal over the last year or so. She recalls the first few weeks that he was shadowing her, and how he grated on her every nerve with his irritating way of pouring over every detail. She used to think that it was his boyish ways and his overactive imagination that wore her patience to the breaking point all the time.

She knows now, having spent years with him as her partner, and the personal time they'd been spending together lately, that the wisecracks and the ridiculous theories he always manages to come up with when they're working a case are his way of taking both of their minds off things. She even manages to silently acknowledge how valuable he's been, with his different way of looking at things, and his knack for catching some of the quirky details that cops tend to miss on the first pass through of all the clues and information involved with a murder scene. His unique perspective has helped them solve cases much faster, and she truly believes he's been a great asset to her and her team. He challenges her mind every day and makes her see things she wouldn't normally see.

There's also a little voice in the back of her head telling her that the real reason she was so short with him in the beginning was because she was so attracted to him from the first time that they met. She doesn't really count the book signing she'd gone to years ago. She counts their first official meeting as the time she'd arrested him on the murder case that started it all, the one where the murderer had been recreating scenes from his books.

She tries to push the thought away, but it won't go, and when she turns to finally look him in the eyes, she sees the curiosity burning there, but she also sees tenderness and true concern. And, with a further jolt to her unusually bare feelings, she realizes that she's been seeing that same look in his eyes for quite some time now.

"Hi." She says, letting the corner of her mouth turn up in a half hearted smile. When his eyes widen at her casual greeting and one eyebrow shoots up, his face tells her that he's not buying her act, and she gets a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her heart gives a little lurch, and she can tell that he's going to play it by ear and not push her into telling him something that she doesn't want to. But she knows that as soon as she tries to string together an actual sentence, she'll end up pouring out the whole mess to him. She's trying to fight it, and hoping that he won't ask her. She knows he will, because she understands that he knows a little bit of the part of her that she tries to keep hidden even though he doesn't try to prove to her or anyone else that he does.

"Hey." He answers softly.

When she sat up, he moved one arm to the back of the couch to rest on the cushions, but his other hand is resting on her thigh. He has one leg stretched straight out, and the other one is on the floor, making enough room for her to sit in the circle of his arms and cry her troubles out.

"Did I wake you?" She asks.

"What?" He seems taken aback by her question. "Oh… No, I was up. I was in the office writing."

"I'm sorry. I didn't meant to you interrupt your work." Kate tells him. She feels even worse now about coming to his apartment, his personal space. Suddenly embarrassed, she moves to get up.

"Kate… Stop." Rick reaches for her with the arm that was on the back of couch. "Don't apologize for coming here." He can't stop the hurt look from flickering across his face at the thought of her regretting to come to him for comfort when that's all he'd ever wanted. Again, a piece of him was thrilled that she trusted him this much, and that she came to him, even if it was unconsciously.

Her first instinct is to pull away from him and run away from the situation, like she's always done where he's concerned. It seems like she's spent so much time pushing him away when she thinks he's getting too close to seeing how she really feels. But the look on his face stops her from getting up. He doesn't deserve that from her. Instead, she sits up a little straighter and turns around so she can put her feet on the floor.

"Okay." She whispers and reaches for the glass of water he brought into the living room earlier. She takes a few sips and sits it back on the table.

When he sees that she's not going to shut him out again, Rick relaxes a little, the tension flowing out of his arms with his relief that she's not getting up. He's glad that she's not protesting the fact that they're still practically tangled up on his couch. She's leans back into the cushions after she sit the glass of water back on the table, resting her shoulder against his chest again. Then she leans her head back across his arm, and this time the tingles he feels aren't because his arm's about to fall asleep.

"I caught Josh with another woman." She tells him, and he can't stop his jaw from dropping at the fact that she's actually going to tell him what's wrong.

"Oh no… Kate, I'm so sorry." He says softly. He's surprised his voice is even. As soon as the words are out of her mouth, he feels a the urge to punch Josh in the face for causing her even one second of pain.

With a sinking feeling that she was right about not being able to stop herself, Kate lets the rest of the story come tumbling out. She tells him how she was going to Josh's place to surprise him. She knew he'd been working late, and since it was the weekend and she didn't have any pressing cases, she'd planned all day to show up and take him out so they could spend some time together.

She'd taken a nap after her shift that day, and then gotten all fixed up. But when she'd gotten to Josh's apartment and used the extra key he'd given her a few weeks before, she'd realized that Josh had company. There was a coat draped across one of the chairs at his small dining room table.

She tells him how she started to call out and let Josh know she was there, and that was when she'd heard the other woman's voice. Not able to stop herself, she had gone further into the apartment and had found them in Josh's bed, having sex. Neither one of them had seen her, and she'd turned and let herself quietly back out the door, locking it as she left.

Rick sat in stunned silence at the story pouring out of Beckett like she couldn't get the words out fast enough, and he clenched his fists as he watched the tears start streaming down her face again. He couldn't believe that bastard Josh. How dare he break this woman's heart! How could he not know what an incredible woman she was?

Kate continued, telling him how she'd just blindly started walking, and Rick's gut clenched at the thought of her alone in the dark, stumbling down the street in her heels. She admitted that her intention was to go home to her apartment, and that she wasn't aware she was coming here until she was standing at his door.

And then she turned to face him again, this time not hiding the tears from him. She was sitting here in front of him, pouring out her soul to him, and the look on her face stunned him even more. It was like she was expecting him to tell her she'd imagined the whole thing, and that everything was going to be all right like he always did.

But he couldn't do that even though her eyes were pleading with him to offer her some rational explanation as to why she was reduced to tears on his couch. He reached up with one hand to wipe the tears from her cheek, and when she leaned in to his touch, Rick completely forgot about his anger at Josh. Kate's unexpected acceptance of his comfort crushed his already fragile restraint, and his other hand came up to cup her face. Feeling disconnected from himself, he pulled her to face to his, tentatively touching his lips to hers.

The rational part of his mind was screaming at him that he was insane; she was going to hate him for taking advantage of the situation. He had a fleeting thought that he was betraying her trust and expected her to slap him, or punch him, or worse, to pull away and bolt right back out the door. But she leaned into him, and Castle could feel his insides turning to jelly at the softness of her lips. He tasted the salt from the tears she'd been crying in his arms, and silenced the voice with a mental shove, pulling her closer to him.

Then her arms came around his neck, and she was kissing him back and he thought he would burst with happiness. She turned more, so that she was facing him, and Rick felt the last bit of his self control shatter like glass. He dropped his hands from her face and put both arms around her, shifting them both in one movement that left him sitting with his back against the couch and her in his lap.

When Kate felt Castle's lips on hers, she couldn't believe that she didn't push him away. She was even more shocked to find herself responding to him. What in the hell was she doing? She didn't come here for this. She was here because she'd needed a friend, someone to turn to, and her heart had known where she'd needed to be. But he felt so strong when he pulled her into his lap, his lips never leaving hers. She wanted to fight it, but she couldn't deny that she didn't want to, and more importantly, that it just felt right to be here in his arms. She felt the tenderness of his mouth on hers, and when he brought his hands back to her face, she could feel them trembling slightly.

With that thought, she pushed all thought and logic aside, surrendering herself to the moment. When she dropped her guard, and concentrated instead on giving in to his searching lips, she felt the acceptance of her feelings for Rick realign her thoughts and settle in the pit of her stomach. Normally, that would have been the moment that brought her back to reality, but instead it made her feel weak with longing, and all she could bring herself to do was wrap herself around him even more. She stopped resisting the heat she felt gathering in her veins and poured her energy into kissing him with all the pent up emotion and tense moments she'd been feeling the last three years.

After several minutes of intense kissing, they both pulled back a little at almost the same instant. Both were feeling more than a little shock from the complete abandon they'd just displayed, but instead of breaking their embrace, they rested their foreheads against one another, each listening to the other one breathe.

It was Castle that finally broke the heated silence. "Kate?" He whispered. "Please don't be angry with me. I couldn't help myself. I've wanted to do that for so long."

Kate felt a tug on her heart at his confession. "Shhh, Rick. You talk too much." She whispered back at him. And to make sure he knew she meant it, she kissed him lightly again.

He groaned softly against her lips and the heat Kate had felt gathering slowly burst into a burning desire that she didn't think she'd ever felt before in her life. Her entire body was suddenly on fire with wanting him and she pressed herself closer to him, shifting her hips into his.

Castle was panting now, and the last thing he wanted to do was question the need he felt radiating from her. But he didn't want her to regret anything she was doing, so he took her wrists in his hands and pulled away.

"Kate…" He started, and felt his heart drop at the look on her face. Her eyes welled up with tears again, and he could see that he thought he was rejecting her. "First of all, please don't look at me like that, it's breaking my heart. I want this more than anything, but what I don't want is for you to wake up tomorrow and regret anything. I don't think I could take it." He ended in a whisper.

Her heart skipped a beat when Castle pulled away from her, and she ducked her chin because she could feel the blush creeping up her neck. She started to push her feelings away until he said her name. She could see the desire burning in his eyes, and his voice melted away the shame that had started to creep into the back of her mind. When he stopped talking and sat there unmoving beneath her, she returned his gaze with her own, and hoped that he could see that what she was about to say was the truth. He'd been honest with her, and he deserved the same.

"I don't regret coming here Rick." She leaned back into him again, lifting her wrists from his grip and placing her hands flat on his chest. She smiled as she felt his heart pounding under her palm and kissed him again. She felt his heart speed up as she parted his lips with her tongue.

"Kate..." He whispered again, almost in physical pain he wanted her so bad. "If we keep this up, I'm not going to be able to control myself much longer."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Kate felt her broken heart start to knit itself back together. She was worried her voice would shake, but brought her hands to his face, and took a breath. When she spoke, she looked him right in the eyes. "I don't want you to stop."

Hoping her legs would hold her up, she slid off the couch and stood in front of him. Again he didn't move and was sitting there looking at her like a teenage boy asking for permission to undo her bra. She took a step back and held out her hand. When he shot off the couch, she had to stifle a giggle. But when he swept her up into his arms, her almost giggle died in her throat. When he looked at her, asking if she was sure with his eyes, she nodded her head and felt like she just woken up to a whole new world when he carried her up the stairs to his bedroom.

When he sat her on the floor, the soft carpet against her feet brought her emotions into a sharp anticipation of what was about to happen, and she smiled as he turned to shut and lock the door. The look in his eyes when he turned back to her was pure devilry.

"Come here Detective."

She crossed the two steps between them, and stepped right into his waiting arms.

* * *

_THE END_


End file.
